Saddam trial is falling into chaos, claims barrister after defence lawyer [View All]

[cal04]

Saddam trial is falling into chaos, claims barrister after defence lawyer found dead

Defence lawyers in Saddam Hussein's trial are demanding American bodyguards after one of them was kidnapped by gunmen at his office in Baghdad and later found dead. General Hussein Ali Kamal, a deputy interior minister, said yesterday that measures had been taken to ensure the lawyers' security after the abduction and murder of Saadoun al-Janabi, a Sunni Arab lawyer whose body was found in Baghdad on Friday. Two members of the defence team said that the 12 remaining lawyers had rejected ministry guards. "We refused because of our lack of trust in the Iraqi security agencies," said one lawyer, Khamees Hamid al-Ubaidi. "Everyone knows there are elements in the Interior Ministry that assassinate Iraqis." The ministry is partly controlled by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Shia party that has most seats in the National Assembly. Its paramilitary arm, the Badr Brigade, is accused of operating death squads.

Mr Ubaidi said the defence lawyers were seeking American protection, and wanted US officials to carry out the investigation into the murder. Mr Janabi was representing Awad Hamad al-Bandar, a former judge on Saddam's Revolutionary Court, and was the only defence lawyer seen in TV coverage of the opening day of the trial, which was adjourned untilnext month. The only other members of the court to appear on camera were the presiding judge and the chief prosecutor, whose identities were disclosed for the first time.


Abdul-Haq al-Ani, a British-trained Iraqi barrister who says he has been asked by Saddam's daughter Raghad to help co-ordinate the ex-dictator's defence from London, told The Independent on Sunday that the trial had already "fallen into chaos". Mr Ani has approached a leading defence lawyer, Anthony Scrivener QC, and a prominent Northern Ireland solicitor, Des Docherty, to represent Saddam, but said: "After this murder, what foreign lawyer would go to Iraq now? There is absolutely no guarantee of any protection."

The defence team in Baghdad will also seek a longer adjournment. "They didn't know what the charge was until it was read in court," said Mr Ani. They are also demanding that the trial be moved away from Baghdad, even outside Iraq, although General Kamal ruled that out yesterday. The interim government has rejected a trial abroad, insisting that Saddam and his regime must be tried by Iraqis in Iraq - in part because an international trial might prevent imposition of the death penalty. "President Saddam has not been given proper legal advice," said Mr Ani. "Not once has his main lawyer on the spot been able to meet with him in private, and any documents they pass to each other are seized by American soldiers and given to the investigating magistrate to look at."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article321612.ece